Top News:
Natalie Korach / The Wrap:
Paramount sells entertainment news websites ComicBook and PopCulture to Savage Ventures, which created a joint venture to relaunch Vice digital properties — This comes after Paramount Global's newly appointed co-CEOs detailed a plan including $500 million in cost cuts
Discussion:
@jkschmidt, @rollinbishop, @kasey__moore, @rollinbishop and The Hollywood Reporter
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Paramount Global says it will cut 15% of its US workforce, or about 2,000 employees, in the next few weeks, after cutting about 800 positions in February — Paramount Global will cut 15% of its U.S. workforce in the next few weeks — a round of layoffs that will affect about 2,000 employees …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, IGN, @hadas_gold, AdExchanger, StreamTV Insider, CNN, Deadline, TVNewsCheck, Next TV, IndieWire, The Wrap, Los Angeles Times and Deadline
Rishav Chatterjee / Reuters:
News Corp puts its 65% interest in Australian pay TV company Foxtel up for sale, citing third-party interest and a strategic review — Australian pay television company Foxtel, controlled by the Murdoch family and partly by local telecom firm Telstra (TLS.AX), has been put …
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Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:
News Corp reports Q4 revenue up 6% YoY to $2.58B vs. $2.49B est., net income of $71M, Dow Jones revenue up 4% to $566M, and book publishing revenue up 15% — Media conglomerate News Corp (NWSA.O) beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue on Thursday, helped by digital subscription growth …
Discussion:
News Corporation, New York Post, Talking Biz News and The Wrap
Sheena Vasani / The Verge:
Substack now lets users publish posts and collect subscribers directly from their profile without setting up a publication, on the web or in its app — Anybody with a Substack account can now publish posts on Substack's web and mobile app, the company announced on Thursday …
Discussion:
@simondowens@threads.net and Substack Reads
Lara O'Reilly / Business Insider:
Email: the World Federation of Advertisers discontinues activities of its nonprofit, GARM, following X's antitrust lawsuit, but intends to contest X's claims — - The World Federation of Advertisers is ‘discontinuing’ the activities of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.
Discussion:
CNN, Ad Age, New York Times, The Verge, Ars Technica, @lindayax, Mother Jones, @repdanbishop, AdExchanger, @judiciarygop, Affiverse, @larakiara, Marc Zander on LinkedIn, Digiday, Fox Business, Michael Follett on LinkedIn, Reclaim The Net, PRWeek, Adweek, Courtney Radsch, PhD on LinkedIn, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Sarah Kay Wiley on LinkedIn, @jalefkowit@vmst.io, Claire Atkin on LinkedIn, New York Post, @mac_ryan_@threads.net, MediaPost, Breitbart, @daveleebbg@threads.net, @catthekin@threads.net, @catthekin@threads.net, The Guardian, Engadget, @renee.diresta@threads.net, Quartz, Arielle Garcia on LinkedIn, @crumbler@threads.net, Ruben Schreurs on LinkedIn, @lauren@mastodon …, @chronotope.aramzs.xyz, Lara O'Reilly on LinkedIn and Barrett Media, more at Techmeme »
Yasmin Rufo / BBC:
The BBC asks Huw Edwards to return the £200K+ in salary he made between his November arrest and his April resignation; BBC Chair says he “behaved in bad faith” — Huw Edwards has been asked to return his salary paid since his arrest, with the BBC chair telling staff the ex-presenter acted in “bad faith”.
Discussion:
The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline
Reuters:
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro bans X in the country for ten days, accusing Elon Musk of using X to promote hatred after Venezuela's disputed election — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday took tensions with social media platform X and its owner Elon Musk to new heights …
Discussion:
TechRadar, Semafor, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle and Xataka On, more at Techmeme »
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
President of Disney EMEA Jan Koeppen says the company plans to spend at least $5B on content production in the UK and continental Europe in the next five years — Regional chief says UK and continental Europe will play a big role in future box office and streaming hits
Discussion:
Variety, Reuters, TVNewsCheck, Deadline and Deadline
The Hollywood Reporter:
A look at the battle among streamers for stand-up comic specials, as Amazon, Hulu, and Max challenge Netflix's dominance of the genre — What industry contraction? Platforms from Hulu to Amazon are spending wildly to woo comedians like Nate Bargatze and Bill Burr and put a dent in Netflix's dominance.
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck and AV Club
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Lionsgate reports a Q1 net loss of $59.4M vs. a $70.7M net loss a year ago and revenue down 8% YoY to $834.7M vs. $857.5M est.; Starz shed 500K subscribers — Lionsgate, still feeling ripple effects from last year's twin Hollywood strikes, reported a decline in sales and while narrowing …
Theo Wayt / The Information:
TikTok and Pinterest partner with Amazon to let users buy items from Amazon ads without leaving the social media apps — Amazon's e-commerce business is huge but slow-growing, while shopping on social media has been taking off. That's prompted Amazon to look for ways to team up with popular social media apps.
Discussion:
esports.gg, Affiverse and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »